View basket “Backtracking Around Friary, Lipson and The Laira” has been added to your basket.

Jews Wood

Along the ridge across the top of Goosewell runs a strip of trees, Jews Wood. Part of the old Radford Estate and more specifically part of what was once known as the Goosewell Plantation, Jews Wood is a comparatively ancient one and dates back to an incident that took place there in the eighteenth century.

In those days road were much narrower and more dangerous, not only in terms of uneven road surfaces, but also in terms of mischief makers and highwaymen, and here it was that a travelling salesman-a Jewish travelling salesman-known as Little Isaacs, was murdered by a soldier, who then stole the itinerant’s wares. These he then tried to sell for himself in Plymouth, however, when questioned, he confessed his crime and was subsequently taken to Exeter where he was executed.

The story is recounted, albeit very briefly, in Henry Whitfeld’s book ‘Plymouth and Devonport in Times of War and Peace’ (1900) and later embellished, slightly, in ‘The Plymstock Connection’ (1995) by Ivy Langdon.